Kamal Ghorui
Over 20,000 people gathered at Mahalaxmi Racecourse on Friday night for Rishab Rikhiram Sharma’s Sitar for Mental Health concert. The performance moved between sitar renditions of popular songs and spiritual compositions, with the audience largely listening in attentive silence.
Bollywood celebs at the showThe large-scale production featured pyrotechnics, confetti and immersive lighting, adding a visual layer to the music without taking focus away from it.
Rishab’s setlist included a mix of ragas, original pieces such as Shankara, Shiv Kailash, Burning Ghat and Roslyn, along with sitar interpretations of tracks like Harry Potter x Game of Thrones, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Zara Zara and Tumhi Dekho Naa. He also performed his Himachali folk single Belua. The concert ended with Chanakya, Kautilya and Tandavam, his take on the Shiv Tandav Stotram.Rishab unveils LED sitarOne of the highlights of the evening was the unveiling of ‘Sitara – The Next-Generation Electric Sitar’, the LED sitar was developed by Rishab in collaboration with his father, master luthier Sanjay Sharma.Rishab’s look for the concert included UV mehendi art curated by artiste Shantanu Hazarika and an ensemble inspired by Michael Jackson’s military jacket look.
